FDM Group commemorates UNIX inventor Dennis Ritchie

Written by Press Release | 18 October, 2011

As a company that has trained over 3,000 graduates in the computer operating system UNIX, FDM Group is commemorating the life of its co-creator and principal designer of the C programming language, Dennis Ritchie.

FDM Group is renowned for its award winning graduate programme, which provides graduates with a combination of industry centred training and real commercial experience.

The international IT services provider established its roots over twenty years ago by offering UNIX training and to this day trains all of its graduates in the system as part of its core module.

FDM Head of Development, Henry Duddy, said, “The systems created by the inspirational Dennis Ritchie have had a major impact on all that we teach at FDM and on the IT industry in general. Not only is the UNIX programme important to all of our trainees for grasping the basics of programming languages, but Ritchie’s involvement in the creation of the C programming language is also fundamental to our C# and Java streams.”

In the late 1960s Ritchie began to develop a more efficient operating system for the up-and-coming minicomputer, which ultimately led to the release of Unix and later C.

Today, C remains the second most popular programming language in the world, which arguably paved the way for all other important development languages including Java, C++ and ultimately C#.

Ritchie’s phenomenal achievements, led to him becoming a joint recipient of the Turing Award in 1983, as well as a recipient of the National Medal of Technology in 1998, presented to him by Bill Clinton.

The UK’s largest IT graduate employer, FDM Group, would like to make all graduates and professionals working within the IT industry aware of the revolutionary nature of Ritchie’s work in order to commemorate his life.

FDM Group CEO, Rod Flavell, said, “At a time when the world is still mourning the tragic loss of Steve Jobs, the pioneering efforts of Dennis Ritchie, which ultimately laid the foundations of the Mac operating system, should not be overlooked. The software tools created by Ritchie have helped to power things that we now take for granted such as search engines and smartphones. As an IT services provider that formed its roots around UNIX and currently trains graduates in Java and C#, I also doubt that we would be where we are today without all that Dennis Ritchie achieved in his lifetime.”

For more information about FDM and its graduate programme please visit the website: www.fdmacademy.com